It’s Saturday … which means it’s time for Five Minute Friday {don’t judge}. It’s still an exercise where a hundred or so faithful souls come together to share five minutes worth of thought on a prompt from Kate Motaung and sharing by link at her site (http://katemotaung.com/2015/06/25/five-minute-friday-dream/).

So, I’m ready for this week’s venture on the word DREAM. The timer is set so let’s GO …

Each day, I send my children and friends a thought for the day. Today’s coincidentally was:

Dreams are lovely. But they are just dreams. Fleeting, ephemeral, pretty. But dreams do not come true just because you dream them. It’s hard work that makes things happen.

We all have dreams, starting as children. Sometimes those dreams follow us through life … other times they get slightly diverted … and sometimes they remain just that — dreams.

Dreams give us an opportunity to think outside the box, to imagine the possibilities. If we believe in something, we can do it — at least in our mind’s eye. But they, indeed, are just dreams — “fleeting, ephemeral, pretty”. To make them come true you do need to consciously work on them each and every day. It’s hard work to turn a dream into a reality. There are skill sets to develop, there are paths to take, there are pitfalls to avoid. There is constant learning from mistakes. There are adjustments to be made.

It’s appropriate in this time of graduations to tell the youth to dream big. But it’s also appropriate to tell them to work hard. Keep the dream in front of you. … STOP

I usually editorialize in my paper at this time with these words to the graduates:

Dream your dreams. Follow your ambitions. Set your goals. But, above all, be true to yourself. Do the best you can … with an emphasis on the word “you.” You’ll know. You’ve always known when you gave it your all … and so did everyone else. You’ve always known when you didn’t … and so did everyone else.

Don’t try to live up to somebody else’s standards. Set your own. Don’t try to please everyone else at your own expense. Eventually you’ll regret it. Keep your faith and trust in humanity. Look for the good in people and the bright side of every calamity. All things have a purpose … you just have to look a little deeper for some.

And it’s never to late to dream. Even as a 20- 30- 40- 50- 60-something or beyond, the maxim is true, if you can dream it, you can do it. But the same principle applies. You have to work at it, focus on it and, most importantly, adjust it. Take that to the bank from a seasoned dreamer.

Dream on!

THOUGHT TO REMEMBER: Frame every so-called disaster with these words, “In five years, will this matter?”